This week I've been taking on the last part of DD I hadn't played with yet: the Gold class challenges. I wrote up a brief strategy summary for each one, and wanted to discuss a couple of the ones I found most difficult to see if I was missing something in any of them.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this set of challenges. They seem to be about on par with the Vicious dungeons, and some of the very hardest were really brutal. Of the ones that seemed hardest:

Fighter: Impossible for me before I figured out to prep the RBS. Manageable with it. I was using Goblins but in retrospect I wonder if Halflings would have been better.

Berserker: Demanding, even once I figured out the strategy, but fun and a cute take on the class.

Warlord: I think the second toughest. Four bosses and just not that many resources. I ended up doing it as an Orc, which combos well with the goat horns, and went Earthmother->Dracul. If the secondary altar had been say JJ I have no idea how I would have managed. None of the threats or opportunities seemed to have much to do with the Warlord's class features, unless I was missing something.

Bloodmage: Probably the hardest of them all. Being a dwarf seems to do you no good, since it's lousy for leveling and you can't save much blood for the end. (The boss takes too many resources and his damage doesn't drop fast enough.) I ended up playing a PISORF orc, which seems sort of to be an intentional strategy because PISORF always spawns. Even so, it took a lucky set of item shops: Midas Gloves, Rock Heart, Dragon Soul, and enough left over for a Schadenfreude, and also a convenient set of walls to slam the boss into rather than having to use monsters much; even so I dropped the boss only with my very last PISORF.

FighterPrep the RBS and a Transmutation Seal. Be a goblin or halfling; you need a damage spike at the end, and you can get it either through health potions or a mid-fight level up. Cross your fingers for the glyphs to arrive in a helpful order. If you find yourself with extra mana, use ENDISWAL or PISORF to open up additional exploration space.

Berserker

Be a gnome. Worship Mystera immediately and use all your mana to get piety no matter what. Health and melee resources won’t help you against the boss, so feel free to burn them against lesser monsters. Take the Alchemist’s Pact for a mid-fight level up against the boss.

Warlord

This is a tough one. Be an orc, which benefits from the Goat Horns that are dropped by plants. Kill plants immediately before you level up. Eventually, you’ll worship Earthmother; don’t take many boons, but use IMAWAL on the revenants to get more XP. Later you can convert out, desecrate, and quaff one potion to cure both that corrosion and the corrosion from the plants. Items that improve your spellcasting are helpful because two of the bosses require heavy fireball use.

ThiefA relatively straightforward one that relies a little bit on finding the right monsters and chests in the right places. You get two of each debuff cure, so don’t worry too much about taking a couple stacks of weakening or corrosion as you gain levels. The boss is fragile and can be taken down with fireballs, fueled by your potions; being level 8 is fine.

RogueBeing an orc is fine. Find Binlor ASAP; if you don’t reasonably quickly, might as well restart. Convert the extra wall crushers for attack power. Use CYDSTEPP or ENDISWAL to tank hits from the boss.

AssassinSince undead are bloodless, you might as well stick with Binlor for the whole dungeon. Take ENDISWAL downstairs with you, and try to be level 8. Kill Berserkers to go from level 8 to 10, then kill Thralls for mid-fight level ups against the boss.

PriestYou have to tank 3 450 HP swings. CYDSTEPP never spawns but ENDISWAL always does. Pactmaker is the only altar, so take Consensus before your pact. Be a dwarf and take the Body Pact to get your resistances naturally high; depending on how efficient your exploration is, you’ll need to save both health and mana potions to take out the bosses.

Monk

Be human or orc to overcome the monk's horrible damage. You have two altars chosen from Taurog, Earthmother, and Jehora. Of these, Taurog is probably the best, even though you need to cast a lot of spells, because getting up to 65% physical resistance is very nice. Start working on the boss early, like at level 6 (knock him down with BYCEPPS even before that if you get it), and get a midfight level-up to 7. APHEELSIK (to prevent the boss's regeneration) and BYCEPPS (to eliminate its resistance) are both helpful; if you can't find APHEELSIK, fireballs are okay.

Paladin

Take a couple boons, but save most of your piety for several shots of Clearance to fuel BYSEPPS + HALPMEH at the end to slowly whittle down the boss's physical resistance and punch through with enough damage. You'll need to buy a weakening cure potion.

Wizard

Without the attack penalty, wizards are not so bad at this level. You need melee attack power to slog through the Meat Men and Golems, so be a human. Like the Berserker challenge, use your mana towards Mystera piety whenever possible even if you don't otherwise need the glyph.

Sorcerer

Probably be a gnome to take advantage of the mana potions, especially if you'll be waiting until late to convert your glyphs with Refreshment anyway. Mystera provides Mystic Balance and Refreshment; Binlor provides magic resistance, which helps against Djinns, Animated Armors, and the boss. Start wearing the boss down with extra mana early. It revives with a slightly larger health pool, so you'll need to fight through 66 death protections. Once you can tank a hit off the first form, save whatever popcorn is left for the second form.

Bloodmage

Because of the boss's nasty ability to heal from your blood pools, the usual bloodmage strategy of a massive blood-fueled spike at the end will get you nowhere. Instead, be an orc, use blood pools to level up to 8, and use PISORF (which seems to always spawn) to actually kill the boss. The boss only heals off of damage, so if it's not burning you can kill a popcorn monster and immediately drink its blood.

I tried both Warrior and Body pact in Priest, and ended up preferring Body, which is a little more helpful pre-boss and since the dwarf naturally has high enough HP that trying to regen them all is a pain. If I were trying to do non-Dwarf, definitely Warrior of course.

PISORF Orc makes sense for the Wizard level, but in general I thought that was possibly the easiest of the twelve. It was like an easier version of the Berserker challenge; the resources weren't all that tight.

sitnaltax wrote:Hmm, that sounds like a smarter way to handle Thief than I used

I tried both Warrior and Body pact in Priest, and ended up preferring Body, which is a little more helpful pre-boss and since the dwarf naturally has high enough HP that trying to regen them all is a pain. If I were trying to do non-Dwarf, definitely Warrior of course.

PISORF Orc makes sense for the Wizard level, but in general I thought that was possibly the easiest of the twelve. It was like an easier version of the Berserker challenge; the resources weren't all that tight.

I found the resist boon still left me unable to attack most things I wanted to kill more than once without using regen. The HP boon let me kill them with a sliver of HP left. Also, doesn't the HP one let you start on the bosses at a lower level (5 or 6 instead of 7)?

Congrats on beating them all. I still despair at monk gold. I hate monks. I hate regenfighting. I suck at it. Gnarg.

A note for Paladin Gold: Scumming for the piercing wand is a legit strategy. If you get it early, you can remove the bosses resistances completely and still get to a decent level for fighting. It doesn't spawn always, but their's a good chance since the shops seem to feature quest items mostly.

I think Priest Gold is way easier with the Scholar pact. The three bosses only take one hit a piece, so an over-healed dwarf can tank that one hit pretty easily early on with 60% res from ENDISWALL. Body pact can only get you an extra 5% resistance anyway.